Facile synthesis of nanostructured vanadium oxide as cathode materials for efficient Li-ion batteries

Homogeneous VO2 (B) nanorods approximately 100 nm in width and 1-2 mu m in length have been fabricated via the hydrothermal process, and are then transformed into irregularly shaped V2O5 nanoparticles of several hundreds nanometers large and 20-30 nm thick after annealing the precursor material at 500 degrees C for 30 min. Both the V2O5 sheet-like nanoparticles and VO2 (B) nanorods were tested as active cathode materials for Li-ion batteries. The V2O5 sheet-like nanoparticles delivered a high discharge capacity of 281 mA h g(-1) at 50 mA g(-1) and 191 mA h g(-1) at 2400 mA g(-1); the material also demonstrated good cyclic stability with a small capacity loss of 35 mA h g(-1) after 40 cycles. The VO2 (B) nanorods and V2O5 sheet-like nanoparticles prepared by the straightforward, environmental friendly and high yield route investigated in this study could prove to be promising candidates for efficient Li-ion batteries.